The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
In a traditional classroom today, a teacher is often the main source of information. The teacher may present a single type of instructional content to any number of students and is forced to present this instructional content at a single pace, despite learning differences (e.g., learning styles, preferences, attitudes, and knowledge deficiencies), dynamically changing learner states (e.g., mood, emotions, and motivation), and other contextual variables affecting learners (e.g., environmental conditions—such as weather, light, and noise). All of the students in the classroom are forced to learn at the same pace with the same type of instructional content and conditions. Putting an emphasis on a time-based and one-size-fits-all approach, it is assumed that at the end of sixty minutes of group instruction, all of the students of the group will acquire necessary learning gains, and will be ready to move on to the next topic or unit in the course. With this unrealistic assumption, some students are forced to move on without fully mastering the current instructional content—resulting in an accumulation of learning deficiencies. In such a scenario, students who learn at a faster pace may have to wait for students who learn at a slower pace, before being able to move on to the next topic or unit in the course. Similarly, students who learn at a slower pace may be forced to move through the instructional content at a pace that exceeds their capability and, as a result, these students may not be able to devote sufficient time to gaining a mastery of the instructional content. Furthermore, at the end, the teacher implements a measurement designed to evaluate student performances, which often reveals achievement differences among the students as a result of the time-based, one-size-fits-all approach.